Argos has launched its Christmas recruitment drive with the aim of hiring 15,000 temporary staff for the retailer’s peak period.

Through its recruitment campaign, ‘Enjoy a richer Christmas’, Argos is hoping to attract thousands of temps to fill largely part-time roles. The company is also looking to recruit staff to work within its distribution and call centre operations.

Seasonal work can also turn out to be far more long term, according to Argos HR director, Andrew Bush.

“Most people who choose temporary work do so because it suits their lifestyle, but we have found that it can really kick start someone’s career,” he said.

“Although our Christmas recruitment campaign starts early, we retain a high percentage of temporary staff throughout their contract and don’t lose them to other retailers who have typically started their Christmas recruitment after us. We also retain a large proportion of temporary employees long after Christmas and we have more than 1,000 who have returned to us each year for the past few years.”

Argos has performed strongly despite the current economic downturn, in the past financial year, sales grew nearly 4% to £4.3bn and it employed about 33,000 people across the business.